I was very struck today by this blurb on the dust-jacket of a short story collection called All That Man Is, by David Szalay:
Tracing an arc from the spring of youth to the winter of old age, All That Man Is brings these separate lives together to show us men as they are – ludicrous and inarticulate, shocking and despicable; vital, pitiable, hilarious, and full of heartfelt longing. And as the years chase them down, the stakes become bewilderingly high in this piercing portrayal of 21st-century manhood.Imagine that same paragraph with "woman" substituted for man.
It seems to be an expectation of contemporary society that we should constantly speak ill of the male sex. This is even true of anti-politically correct movements. J.K. Rowling, when it comes to the controversy that has engulfed her in recent years, generally presents it as a case of men infringing on women's rights. Critcs of mass immigration often use the phrases "military-age men" and "unvetted men". I'm not addressing those arguments here, I'm just pointing out that maleness is generally seen as a problem right across the political spectrum. Rhetorically, men are the easy target for both left and right.
I've also noticed that, if you say anything positive about men, there's a conditioned impulse to immediately say something flippant or derogatory about them. It's extraordinary.
It seems to be part of a lose-win mentality (I refuse to say "zero-sum"), where anything nice we say about men is perceived to be anti-woman. Can't we honour and cherish both men and women, in their common humanity and in their glorious differences?
how dare you be reasonable... at a time like this no less.
ReplyDeleteLaeth
All I can plead is my patriarchal conditioning!
Deleteclear case of male privilege... and mansplaining!
DeleteLaeth
"It seems to be an expectation of contemporary society that we should constantly speak ill of the male sex"
ReplyDeleteYes, that seems to be true.
I think a big part of it is that people have lost the understanding of respect. By respect, I just mean valuing something for what it is. People used to recognize that whatever station in life, if you do the right thing, then that has value and also, there were plenty of genuinely good things for people to do.
But nowadays, everybody, left, right, far-right, far-left, or whatever else they want to call themselves wants to enlist men (and women as well) in their social engineering schemes. But there is no reason why anybody should join up. They don't respect the people who should supposedly follow their schemes, such people are just expected to be cogs. The modern world does not value men (or women either, but in a different way).
For an example of respect from a different time, I read that Leo XIII's encyclical Rerum novarum says, "wages ought not to be insufficient to support a frugal and well-behaved wage-earner".
Now that is a significant statement because it shows the attitudes people had at the end of the 19th century. The idea is that a normal worker, who takes care of his family, who does not gamble or drink away his wages, is worthy of respect.
It does not mean people have to defer or take orders from him (that is a modern misunderstanding), it just means that what he does has value. And to show respect you do not even have to use many words, sometimes it is expressed in words, but often it simply in the attitude and relations towards people.
Very good point. Even the term "man of the house" is usually used ironically these days!
DeleteRespect these days seems to mean "open-mindedness", rather than honouring somebody.